For the last 26 games, the first 26
varsity games of Krum’s short-lived football history, Krum head coach Gary
Robinson has preached to his team about playing football in December.

That notion was previously impossible.
Krum had never played UIL varsity football before this season, a season in
which the Bobcats were slotted to finish last in District 9-3A by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football.

Tonight is Game 27. And playing football
in December is no longer an afterthought.

The Krum Bobcats will try to win their
first playoff game when they face the Celina Bobcats at 7:30 tonight at C.H.
Collins Athletic Complex.

The winner of the Class 3A Division II
bi-district game faces either Dallas Madison or Bonham in the next round.

Robinson said the challenge forKrum
(9-1) tonight presents a great opportunity for a program looking to establish
itself.

“The Krum Bobcat program’s on the rise,
and in order for us to be a big dog, we have to beat the big dogs,” Robinson
said. “And we have an opportunity to do that [tonight].”

Celina (8-2) has been one of the “big
dogs” of Texas, winning six state titles and playing in eight state
championship games since 1998. In Class 3A, Celina’s went 1-2 on the state’s
biggest stage, winning the 3A Division II title in 2007. Five state titles were
won in Class 2A.

One of the three goals Robinson had
established this season was earning respect, a thing he knew had to be earned
for the school in its first season in district competition.

Wojciak (1,187 rushing yards, 14
touchdowns) and Flores (1,424 rushing yards, 20 touchdowns) have been the
catalysts for Krum’s rushing game this season, an attack that was stifled in
its only loss of the season against Gainesville, a game that decided the 9-3A
title.

“I don’t think they necessarily slept on
us — maybe took us a little big lightly,” Wojciak said of opposing teams and
fellow naysayers. “I mean, we have two kids in the backfield under 5-10.
Obviously people are going to take you lightly. We just prove people wrong.
That’s what we’ve been doing all year. That’s what we’re going to do
[tonight].”

Robinson’s team played three road games
in its first year, stayed home for the other seven and finished 6-4 in 2011.
Then in 2012, Robinson turned a school with a new football program into a playoff
team.

And to prepare for the bigger stadium
that Krum will play in tonight, Robinson shuttled his players in one of the
school’s blue-and-white buses Tuesday to C.H. Collins, where they practiced
until the sun was all but set.

In a rare occurrence, Krum will have
enough seating to fit a fan base that’s been supportive of its new team all
season. In Krum’s final game at Gainesville, fans lined the inner fence of
Leopard Stadium.

Krum has the daunting task of facing
Celina and proving people wrong, conditions Krum have become accustomed to and
thrived under.

“[Celina’s] a bigger team, but our whole
saying of our team is ‘Shock the World,’” Flores said. “And that’s we came out
here to do.”

For a team yet to win a playoff game,
Krum is brimming with confidence. Robinson attributes that to the amount of
time this group of kids has played with each other, or at least that’s his
initial guess.

“I think they love each other, and they
play for each other, and they’re not going to let each other down,” Robinson
said. “And they do have a lot of confidence in themselves. I don’t know where
that comes from, but it’s a good thing. It feels good.”

On Tuesday, when the team kneeled around
Robinson after practice in the middle of the field, Robinson closed his speech
to the team by saying, “Next time we’re out here, it’ll be the real deal.”

Tonight at C.H. Collins, when Krum steps
out of the visitor’s locker room, one set of bleachers will be shaded blue and
the other shaded orange, both sides watching to see if the young pups can hang
with the “big dogs.”

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